IME here in Colorado, a lot of them pay as well, or better, than run of the mill tech companies. I suspect the AI and "FAANG" companies may pay more, but I personally wouldn't work for any of those. In any case, I'd take $160k in Colorado over $240k in California any day.
And the problems are definitely a lot more interesting.
The problem is BigTech pays $800K or even $1M+.
Hmmm on the one hand murder, on the other hand ads
It would be fine if "defense" is what was meant, but they recently changed it back to a far more honest "department of war".